You are managing so well and it is so obviously showing in his recovery,whilst it's tough and a lot of work you must feel so much better having him at home with you and he will definitely feel better about that x
Don't you worry about "banging on" - we all want to hear progress reports. It all sounds so positive and 50 minutes of walking per days it great. It might be boring to you, but I'm sure Charlie enjoys catching up on all the pee-mail while he's out and about
Glad to hear it's all going well. It's time-consuming but so worthwhile getting it right. Onwards and upwards, Charlie!
50 minutes is very good, yes, and although they are slow lead walks over the same ground, he does seem to look forward to them. We have a stop watch to hang round our necks and it's very satisfying moving the count on by 30 seconds. His walks increase by 2.5 minutes a week (so 5 days we increase by 30 seconds). I hope tonight the vet will agree we can keep increasing at this rate as he also has the maximum 5 walks. This is just enough to keep him from going too mad....
I think the frequency of the walks must almost be more important than the duration for keeping him from going stir-crazy. If he was allowed only one fifty minute walk in the morning, he'd have the whole rest of the day to get bored, but at least with five outings, it breaks up the day a lot. Fingers crossed the vet is happy with everything and you can keep increasing the time. I have no idea how you logistically increase by 30 seconds on a walk. What if he wants to have a really long sniff of something particularly interesting?!
When the walks are really short it's impractical to let them sniff - it's an at heel slow march 2.5 mins out and back. Now though we can get to a couple of areas that are interesting to sniff (along the fence by the school, busy with foxes and other dogs) we slow march there, stop the clock and have a sniff round - not for too long - and then at heel back.
So pleased to read about Charlie, he is so often in my thoughts and pleased he is up to 5 x 10 minute walks, I remember doing those well and gradually building up.
I'm glad everything is going so well. I wonder if it's because you've had him at home this time. I know Greyfriars were brilliant with you but they can't possibly give the attention you can at home. I do think no stress and being happy can have an effect on recovery. Good luck at the vets hope it goes well.
Yes, there is no doubt he is better off at home in some respects - he gets a lot more attention (almost constant!) and activities. It's not easy though, working and doing this. I wasn't in a position to do it last time although did rearrange my work from 5 weeks on to do it. It is riskier though, there was almost zero chance of him slipping, or jumping, or someone making a mistake, at Greyfriars. It's difficult to reduce those risks at home unless he is kept in his crate (in which case, it would be pretty much the same as him being at Greyfriars).
It sounds as if Charlie is doing fantastically and that you are up to 50 minutes in total for walks a day, have fingers crossed for he vet visit this evening. I think his progress has been so good because he is in his home environment. Although the risk of slipping may be slightly increased I think being with you, and how relaxed and happy he looks, far outweighs the raised risk element. It's also possible that with not so much crate time he is more relaxed as well.
He is really do well, incredible he is on 50 mns in total walks a day. The fact he has almost no muscle wastage must really help with his long term rehab. Can't wait to see Charles action shots in a few months or so
Thanks all. All good at the vet. He was very excited though. Anyway, we're good to keep going. And ice can stop. Which I'm pretty bloomin' glad about. We've iced that leg 45 times so far and I'm tired of doing it. And Charlie isn't keen either. Physio appointments start next week. The only down side is Charlie has put on 1kg. Which I knew from looking at him. He is not overweight because he'd lost weight before the op but obviously we can't carry on with him getting heavier. This is because OH and I keep messing up (to be fair to us, we don't actually get to see each other much to talk about what we are doing!). For example, today OH gave Charlie lunch - just because he forgot Charlie no longer gets lunch, then gave him his lunchtime kong early, and I gave him his lunchtime kong late when I got home. So three lunches! Sigh...anyway, I'll do a table to pin in the kitchen and we'll have to tick it off... We'll stop messing up, and cut things back by 25%. So this is Charlie's dinner tonight by 25% - cut from 40g to 30g....poor Charlie. 30g by julieandcharlie julieandcharlie, on Flickr
You are all doing so well, Julie! I'm sure you will get the food sorted out. Poor Charlie...I'm sure he was loving the "extra" lunches but, oh well....
Ah, poor Charlie, the tale of his 3 lunches made me laugh though. I am sure he thought "FINALLY! The proper amount of lunches that I am due! Good job owners you have finally cracked it!"
